


Time Flies

by DressTheSage



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, One Shot, Ten Years Later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:34:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23674696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DressTheSage/pseuds/DressTheSage
Summary: Raven Branwen offered her daughter a choice, join me or go find your uncle. Weiss thought it laughable that she'd think it even possible Yang would say yes, but here she is, ten years later, searching for the blonde bombshell and trying not to die in the process.Short lil one-shot I made for a Zine application. I may expand on the idea later, or come back and rewrite it into an actual full length fic. Enjoy!
Relationships: Weiss Schnee/Yang Xiao Long
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34





	Time Flies

“Mom!?” Yang screamed as she ran out of the tent that Raven had just walked out of.   
Weiss stood, quickly walking over the scraps of shattered porcelain and splintered wood that moments ago had been a table and a tea set. 

She had been holding her friend and ally back from launching into a suicidal-at-best fight with her own mother now found herself chasing after the robotic-armed blonde. Weiss bumped into Yang as she stood in the center of a cluttered clearing between the tent and one of the walls of sharpened logs that enclosed the camp. 

“Yang, are you ok?” Weiss asked, but heard no response. She saw her teammate’s fist visibly shaking, seemingly caused by her ragged, uneven breathing. It took a moment for her to realize that Yang was crying, or trying not to. 

“It’ll be fine...She just needs to get us back to Ruby.” Yang muttered, swallowing down the frog in her throat as she took a deep breath. She wouldn’t break here, not from something so common as her mother walking out on her. 

“Yang, it’s ok if you’re not.” Weiss rested her hand on her teammate’s shoulder and felt the muscle pulled taut beneath her jacket. It felt as if there was a bundle of steel cable beneath the soft leather. She felt the muscle relax as she spoke, and just a bit of tension left the blonde’s shoulders, but a moment later she felt her teammate pull away as she began looking around, trying to find wherever her mother had hidden with nothing but a harsh whisper along the lines of ‘I said I’ll be fine’ from the woman’s lips. Weiss thought best to search as well, looking away to begin only to have a soft thud draw her attention behind her.

Stood between the two of them was Yang’s mother, a small spattering of feathers fluttering down around her. 

“Where were you?” Yang’s words came out in a strange mix of rage and fear. Raven pulled the blade at her hip out and Weiss reached instinctively for the handle of her own blade. Knowing what she knew now, all these years later it seemed foolish to her that she’d done so, that woman could have killed them with a snap of her fingers, had she the desire. But she’d been so very gullible back then. Raven swung her sword, seemingly cutting into the very air itself as a pulsating black void tore open before them. So this was Yang’s mother’s semblance. 

“You can stay, and I’ll explain everything to you, or you can step through here and have your uncle feed you the same delusional propaganda that he ate up so happily. That choice is yours and yours alone, Yang. I pray you don’t make the wrong one. It would be...nice, to have a fresh start, to see the type of woman you’ve become.” Raven’s words had struck Weiss as so laughable, given the nonsense she’d tried to preach to them before running out here. Looking back, it made her heart ache how, had she just kept her mouth shut, perhaps things would’ve been different. 

“Do you really think we’d ever listen to you, standing here, mere feet from your cult of delinquents and criminals? As if you have any right to speak about ‘propaganda’. I may not be very ‘streetwise’, miss Branwen, but I know when someone is trying to sell me a crock! I’m not staying another damned minute in this place!” She’d felt so proud then, standing up to the big bad villain that held her hostage for what had felt like an eternity. But all she had done was insult Yang’s mother right in front of her, while her poor teammate was trying to make what must’ve been the hardest choice of her life, her sister or her mother. 

“Make your decision, Yang. your friend certainly has.” Raven gestured to her still-open portal. Yang stood motionless, trying to ignore the painful weight on her heart that she’d come to know well in the years to follow. She knew what she needed to do, but the question was if she’d actually go through with it. 

“Let’s go, Weiss.” The Schnee smiled, holding back the urge to taunt raven as she stood beside the portal. At least she’d had some sense back then, however not enough to realize what was about to happen. 

Yang clenched her fists, slowing her stride as Weiss walked ahead of her. When The two stopped in front of the portal, Weiss was positioned with it before her and Yang right behind her. 

“Ok, so how do we do this Yang? Do we go in together?” Weiss looked over her shoulder as she spoke before looking right back to the portal. 

Yang didn’t, couldn’t respond. Her throat felt like it was full of cement. She allowed her eyes to roam, taking in every detail about Weiss she could, burning them into her mind as to never forget. The way she stood, one hand on her cocked hip, the other on her weapon radiated a pride and confidence that Yang couldn’t help but admire. The way her clothing seemed to fit just right, even if she never really could understand the Battle Skirt, made it quite clear she knew exactly how beautiful she was. But Yang doubted that she knew just how beautiful she was and had always been to her. She would never admit to anyone the level of joy she felt when she saw Weiss again. Well, after she’d been freed from the cage, of course. It had felt like so long since they’d been side-by-side, and Yang’s eyes burned as she realized how short it would have to be. 

She wasn’t sure how long she stood there, but when she saw her teammate, her friend, her partner turn around the look of concern on her face made the weight in Yang’s chest grow that much larger. 

“Yang? Are you ok?” Weiss asked. Her eyebrows, perfectly trimmed even after days of captivity, of course, were furrowed together and her lips were pursed just-barely in worry. 

Weiss should have known what was happening, but she’d been in denial, hoping it was just Yang nerves. But it didn’t matter. When she felt one of Yang’s real fingers hook under her chin and lift it, ever so slightly, the realization dawned on her like a black sun. 

Not the kiss. That was a, very pleasant if bitter-sweet, shock to her. The way it had made her feel haunted her to this day. She remembered the awkwardness of it. Yang seemed to hesitate as she leant in, only to then overcompensate, slamming their lips together just a bit too hard. Her lips were soft, and she remembered the pull of disappointment when they pulled away. That pull would become so very common for her afterward. The softness against her lips was quickly replaced by a strong hand on her hips. 

“Weiss, I’m so, so sorry…Please tell Ruby.” Yang’s cheeks were slick and her eyes were red, but not her pupils.. Weiss couldn’t even say anything before she felt her hips being shoved away. The brief sensation of floating in nothingness was interrupted by that of her falling onto a hardwood floor. 

“Oh my gosh, Weiss!” Ruby’s voice rang out, joy evident as she saw her long-lost team mate. She didn’t reply, but simply stared at the ceiling above her. A moment later, Ruby’s voice came back, much less happy and much more concerned. “Weiss...Why are you crying?” 

\- END SEGMENT FOR APPLICATION

It had been nearly ten years since that day, so it was no wonder that memory was back, clawing its way through her mind as she did the same through the inky blackness of the unnamed forest she was fleeing through, the remnants of an entire pack of Beowolves on her tail. They’d been following her for nearly an hour, judging by the moon sitting at the very top of the sky. When she felt something take out her ankle, some shadow-hidden root or maybe the grasping claw of one of her persuers, Weiss Scnee felt herself begin what was certainly the slow descent into her grave. The first shotgun blast rang before she’d even hit the ground. By the time she slid to a stop and turned to look behind her the forest was a bloodbath.

A Beowolf swung down at a yellow blur only for its arm to stop mid-swing, caught in a black-glove-and-yellow-gauntlet-clad hand. The blur, now clearly a tall blonde woman, swung her other arm around and removed the offending appendage from its with a blast to its wrist. Its screams filled the forest, only silent after the woman smashed her fists into its chest a dozen times accentuated by loud blasts and the clattering of shotgun shells. 

Weiss recognized her immediately in that one small moment where the woman slowed long enough to actually be seen. It wasn’t the family crest emblazoned on the back of the worn and faded black leather of her jacket, nor the shock of blonde hair on her head. That was almost unrecognizable, as it seemed sometime in the past decade she had chopped it off just below her chin. It wasn’t even the still-pristine robotic limb with which she had just disarmed and disemboweled a ravenous monster. 

No, what made it undeniable that this was Yang Xiao Long that was saving her was the bright, face-splitting grin she wore as she launched the body of that eviscerated Grimm at one of its charging allies and moved on to the next opponent. No one beside her Yang could ever love combat that much. One Beowolf found its leg blown off, another its head launched away with a punch to the throat, a third tried to bite at her, only to have its lower jaw completely ripped away from the rest of its body. In seconds, the forest was empty besides the two of them. 

Weiss stood and heard a familiar, and yet so very alien voice. 

“What are you doing here, Weiss?” Yang rolled her shoulders back as she relaxed her stance. The popping of her joints was nearly as loud as the gunshots. 

“You know exactly what.” Weiss shot back. She hated how angry that had sounded, but she hated the sting that came to her eyes even more. Yang didn’t even look at her. She just stood, facing away. . 

“Humor me.” It sounded like an order. 

“I was looking for you.” Yang sighed, running her hands through her short, shaggy hair. Weiss could see that same tension in her shoulders as she walked closer, as if it were ten years ago all over again. “You were watching me. You have been this whole time.” Weiss made it clear that it was not a question. She finally closed the gap, and Yang was forced to face the tall white-haired woman, even if she did everything she could not to look her in the eye. 

The two could not look more different. Weiss had taken after Winter in the past few years, wearing high waisted white slacks, a matching blouse, black knee high boots and an appropriately icey-blue jacket that ended right at her hips. She looked pristine, her hair perfectly braided around her head like a silver crown. Yang, however, looked like hell to put it charitably. Her jacket, clearly meant for a man, was more patches and stitching than original leather. Her black fatigue pants and boots looked to be worn, likely surplus from an Atlas soldier. She wasn’t even wearing a shirt, just a yellow tank top. The blonde of her clearly self-cut hair was obscured by the thick coating of dirt that seemed to have collected on it. Weiss could not describe how much she wanted to bury her fingers in that hair, regardless. 

“Why would you do something so stupid as to look for me?” 

“I’ll answer your question with my own. Why would you do something so stupid as to run off and abandon me?” Weiss glowered at Yang, whose face twisted as if the words physically pained her. 

“I...My mom needed me. She couldn’t say it, not for a long time, but she did. And you said you wouldn’t stay, so I made a call. You wanted to be with Ruby and Blake, so...” Yang started to ramble, her eyes still refusing to meet Weiss’s.

“Yang, are you really so damned stupid?” She looked up, finally, and Weiss saw those lilac eyes that had haunted her sweetest dreams and most terrible nightmares for all these years. 

“Weiss, listen, I...” 

“No! No, you listen, you damned fool.” Weiss interjected. “I’ve spent the past decade waiting for you to come to your senses, and you never did! So don’t you dare say I’m the stupid one. Do not, for a second, act like you did that for me! If you had, you’d have asked. Had you asked, I’d have told you with no uncertainty that I didn’t want to just be back to Ruby and Blake, I didn’t just want to be out of that camp. I wanted to be back with the people who made me feel at home. I wanted to be back with my team. Damn it I wanted to be back with you!” Weiss’s eyes stung again, and she hated it even more this time. 

“Weiss...I’m so…” 

“I’m not done!” The white haired woman screamed. She didn’t care if her voice, her tears, her rage attracted more grimm. “You threw me away! Literally! I spent years pining for you like some lovestruck fool! Just waiting, hoping beyond any semblance of logic that one day you’d finally pull your head out of your ass and come back to us! To me! But no! Not one scroll message or letter, nothing!” 

“Do you think I enjoyed being forced to pick between my team and my own mother?! Don’t you think I wanted to reach out!? Did you think that what I did was some meaningless gesture? Weiss, that kiss was one of the few good decisions I’ve made in my entire life. I wanted to see you, to talk to you so badly.” Weiss saw tears collecting at the edges of Yang’s eyes. 

“...Then why didn’t you?” 

“I…” Yang began, she looked away again, and instinctively Weiss reached out and grabbed hold of the woman’s lapel. Yang was not getting away again. “I couldn’t at first...so much happened those first few months, that first year.. When we finally settled down I tried. I can’t count how many messages I typed and never hit send on, how many letters I wrote only to burn. I…” 

“What?!” Weiss was desperate. She needed to know why, if Yang had wanted to see her so badly, had she left her behind. 

“By then, I saw what my mom loved about her family. They’re crass, callous...but they aren’t evil. They really did accept me as family, after a while when...when I took over I just...I couldn’t risk it.” Shame dripped off of the words of Yang’s confession. 

“Risk what?!” 

“...You asking me to come back.” Yang looked deep into Weiss’s eyes. “Because...I knew if you did, I would do it in a heart beat. Drop everything, leave my family behind yet again, and come running back just to have abandoned it all for nothing.” Her cheeks were running like a riverbed, and her breathing was ragged as she confessed her greatest shame. The entire time, weiss had still not let go of her grip on the woman’s jacket. With every word they spoke, the two of them seemed to inch closer and closer. Weiss grabbed the other lappel of her jacket, and pressed her hands against the blonde, as if she were trying to shake her but couldn’t muster the muscle. 

“...You idiot…” Weiss whispered as she looked down and shook her head. Yang almost thought she could hear her...laughing? “Did…” She looked up, their faces now barely inches apart. “Did you not think that maybe we’d… I’d ask to join you instead?” Weiss’s voice cracked at those few final words. She had imagined this conversation a hundred times as she searched, following years of breadcrumbs to finally find this woman.This was unlike any of the versions she’d imagined. Here she was, admitting to a woman she hadn’t seen in over a third of her life that she’d spent the past decade so desperately longing for her that she’d still drop everything just to be with her. She felt so small, so very very vulnerable. 

“Weiss…” The name left Yang’s lips, barely audible as she cupped the now openly-crying woman’s face in her hand. 

“Please?” she begged. 

“Y...yes, of course. Yes.” Yang spoke rapidly as if she was afraid if she didn’t answer quickly enough Weiss might disappear into thin air. She was almost laughing as a massive grin crept onto her face in a way it hadn’t in so many years. 

Neither one knew who leaned into the kiss first, neither cared. But second later the two were pressed against each other, clinging on for dear life. Weiss’s arms wrapped around Yang’s neck, her Yang’s neck, and finally got to bury her fingers into that mess of dirty blonde hair. She felt hands back on her hips, this time lifting her up, pulling her closer and holding her tight rather than pushing her away, alone. The sun had started to rise by the time they finally pulled away from each other for more than just a gasp of air. 

As the dawn slowly lit the forest around them they stood together, hand in hand, and moved towards the start of something wonderful, something new that was theirs and theirs alone, together.


End file.
